The Four

Chapter 26

"Shay, you need to calm down," Emmet repeated himself for the fifth time.

It was March first or the first time Shay was meeting Roselyn. Currently he was walking around the apartment mumbling different lists that he made in his head.

"It's starting to get really creepy" Melanie mumbled as she turned around to look at Shay, "Why don't you just sit down and relax?"

"You are not the person to be telling me to relax!" Shay looked over at her, a frantic look on his face, "Didn't you just have another baby freakout about setting up a crib?"

Melanie blinked at him for a second before clapping her hands and turning back around, "Okay, anyone else want to try?"

Emmet gently rubbed her back before trying to calm his friend down again, "Why don't you have a drink or something to calm your nerves?" He suggested completely forgetting that Roselyn was going to be accompanied by a caretaker that the judge ordered.

Shay stopped pacing and turned to look at Emmet, "You two? Never have kids!"

"You're up!" Emmet looked over at Addilyn who had been silent for the past hour.

Addilyn looked up from the magazine that she was lazily flipping through, "Well first of all you two should probably leave because don't you have a race at three?"

"Yeah, but we don't have to be there until two-thirty" Emmet told her as he looked over at Melanie who was now staring at the clock.

"It's two-fifteen," Melanie said, looking over at him.

"And we're leaving!" Emmet stood up holding Melanie's hand to help her up off the couch, "We'll be back later"

"Back later and completely calm and sober" Melanie added on with a grin as if it was going to make Shay feel any calmer.

Shay crossed his arms staring at his two friends. The two of them were highly intelligent in their own ways but when you put the two of them together it shocked him how stupid they sometimes could be.

"Get out!" Shay demanded them with a look that Melanie would only describe using a pop culture reference such as Derek Hale's famous look of anger.

"Good luck!" Melanie called as she pulled Emmet out of the front door hoping that they wouldn't be late for the race.

Addilyn began speaking again once the door was shut, "As for you, you need to come sit down and relax." She told Shay, "She's your daughter, she's going to love you, I promise"

"But she doesn't even know me," Shay sighed as he sat down on the couch.

That was his biggest worry. He had been absent from Roselyn's life for almost ten months. She had no idea who he was or that he was her father. The thought of her hating him or being scared of him.

"She's nine months old, she doesn't know a lot of people" Addilyn reminded him with a small smile, "But despite that, I know that the second you meet her and hold her everything will be okay"

"You don't know that for sure" Shay reminded her trying to find every reason not to believe her.

Addilyn sighed softly once she realized Shay wasn't going to listen to her, "I know that, but I do know you. And I know that you love her already without having met her yet."

Shay went silent as he listened to what she said. Addilyn was right; he already cared deeply for Roselyn. It was weird but it was a good weird.

"Thanks" he whispered as he looked over at her, feeling himself choke on air at her smile.